The game we had to win to have any legitimate claim to being a quality football team and we lost. The season is over as far as trying to win the only thing that we could possible win, the Leaders Division of the Big Ten. Now we would need two teams to beat Ohio State and we would have to run the table.

So forget about winning anything this year. We can get some satisfaction by beating Nebraska and Wisconsin but after watching this game I doubt that will be possible. We can look to beat Purdue and Indiana and end a very mediocre season at 7-5. I do have a friend who is a Nebraska Cornhead and I can’t wait to get his toxic email the day after we lose to Nebraska.

I guess it was too optimistic to believe that we could beat a Top 10 team although we gave them a decent game. Our formula for success has been to control the clock by methodically moving the sticks and keep the defense off the field. Since we were not able to do that the defense had to play much longer and wore down in the second half and started to give up points.

It goes back to what I said at the beginning of the year that we will not win big games with McGloin at quarterback. And I don’t want to pick on Matt because he did the best he could and actually had a decent game, but the point is that he does not have an arm to get completions on intermediate routes and forget about deep balls. Consequently the defense crowds that line and stuffs the run which is evidenced by the fact that we had 37 yards rushing. Then they take away the short passing game, daring McGloin to throw it deeper and he can’t do it.

Ok now here is the really bad news, Nebraska and Wisconsin know this and will do the exact same thing. What are you going to do? We have no other quarterback so we have to dance with the one who brung us. Disillusion just smacked my optimism over the head with a 2 x 4 and now I have another year to wallow in self-pity. Dashed hopes, melancholy and another year of watching how recruiting goes with hope for the future.

Over the 54 years that I have been watching bad Penn State play football there have been stretches when we had quarterbacks that were not so good. All I can say is thank God that McGloin is a 5th-year senior and we don’t have to deal with anyone telling us next year that he is the best we have. We can only pray that Christian Hackenberg comes through and shows up. Otherwise it will be a long time until we can get a quality team together.